Semiauto Rifles
RIA: Soviet SVT-38 Self-Loading Rifle
A lot of people think that the US was the only country in World War II to mass-issue a semiautomatic infantry rifle, but that isn’t true. While the US was the only country to issue […]
Video
Revolver
RIA: Polish Ng30 Nagant Revolver
The Model 1895 Nagant revolver is pretty common in the US thanks to large imports of Russian revolvers, but we rarely see Polish Nagants. These were adopted as a sidearms for police organizations under the […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Predecessor to the Mosin – the Russian Berdan II
Before adopting the M1891 Mosin-Nagant, the Russian Empire (like most major militaries) used a large-bore single-shot rifle as its standard infantry rifle. In this case, a .42-caliber rifle designed by American General Hiram Berdan (yes, […]
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Radom’s Vis 35: Poland’s Excellent Automatic Pistol
In the 1920s Poland began looking for a new standard military pistol, and tested a variety of compact .380s. The representative from FN brought along an early iteration of the High Power (along with their […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Gewehr 29/40 Mauser
Over the next couple weeks we will be looking at several Polish firearms, and the first one is today: the G29/40. When German forces overran the arms factory in Radom, Poland, they captured in nearly […]
Percussion
RIA: Porter Turret Rifle
The Porter was one of the few turret rifles ever put into serial production. Turret rifles are similar in principle to revolvers, but they is a cylinder with radial chambers (like the spokes of a […]
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: An Introduction to Early Lever-Action Rifles
We’ve all seen lever action rifles galore in movies about the old west, and most of us have handled and shot a bunch of them as well. But do you know where they came from? […]
Video
RIA: Greener’s Humane Horse Killer
Humans have been killing animals for thousands of years, and with the development of the self-contained cartridge, the Greener company started making a compact and efficient Humane Horse Killer. Used by veterinarians for euthanizing creatures […]
Submachine Guns
RIA: MP3008 Sten Copy
The MP 3008, aka Gerät Neumünster, was one of two German efforts to copy the British Sten gun. The first was the Gerät Potsdam (“gerät” meaning device or project; basically project code name), which was […]
Conversion
Smoothbore Spencer: Tracing a Mystery Gun
Today’s firearm is not a normal gun; it is a conversion of a Spencer into a shotgun. My question is, what path did this weapon travel? What did it begin as, and how did it […]